


Courage and Encouragement

by Ultra



Category: Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
Genre: Courage, F/M, Falling In Love, Feelings Realization, Hope, Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-02
Updated: 2018-02-02
Packaged: 2019-03-12 15:55:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13550649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: Perhaps Fanny is not so indifferent to Mr. Crawford after all.





	Courage and Encouragement

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Crunchysunrises](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crunchysunrises/gifts).



> I always wondered what might have happened if Fanny believed Mr. Crawford to be genuine in his feelings for her and started to fall herself, but never thought anyone else felt the same! I was so glad to find I was not alone, that I had to write this.

It had once been said, by the great John Donne, that no man is an island. Fanny had never thought that such a thing might also apply to a woman, and yet she knew it to be very true now. Though she was staying in her childhood home, surrounded by more persons in less space than ever before, she had started to feel very lonely and awfully low. This, she realised, had hardly been noticeable when she first arrived in Portsmouth, and yet, the absence of a certain gentleman caller now seemed to be affecting her most cruelly.

Mr. Crawford was not a man she had ever thought to desire in any way. He could be amiable and kindly, and had proven himself to her in a myriad of ways since first declaring certain feelings for her, and even asking for her hand. Fanny had then believed him quite incapable of securing her affections and declared she would not yield. It was strange how things should have changed so much, and so quickly.

When he left her at the door all of three days before, he had made her promise to always declare to his sister in any letter she wrote, ‘I am well.’ Should Fanny not state these words precisely, he should know from Mary that she was unwell and would come to her at once, to convey her home to Mansfield, if she wished it.

It seemed deceitful to do such a thing, to deliberately leave out those vital words from her missive, and yet, it would be a greater lie to write them. Fanny did so wish to be home again, and so the letter was sent, with no word of her well-being.

Each morning after her letter was sent, Fanny waited to see what might happen, and at length, the day he came to collect her.

“Mr. Crawford, you should not have come,” she assured him, in spite of everything, though her heart seemed to race just at the sight of him, just knowing he had returned for her precisely as promised.

“Did we not have an arrangement, Miss Price?” he asked her, a particular look in his eye that she used to abhor and yet now found quite delightful. “You did not tell my sister you were well, and therefore, one can only surmise that you wished to summon me. Is this not so?”

To confirm his suspicions rather than deny them, it would mean that much more to him than perhaps Fanny intended, but then, she knew when she wrote that letter, when she intentionally missed out those three important words, ‘I am well.’ She was furnished with the knowledge then that should she do so, this was what must happen. She had summoned him, because she wished him here at her side, equally as much as she wished to see Mansfield again.

“Yes,” she said at last. “Mr. Crawford, I... I do believe that it was entirely my intention to summon you here, though I cannot deny I am astonished at my own behaviour.”

“And yet, I am not,” he told her, daring to take a hold of her hand. “I had hoped, though scarce allowed myself to believe, that you might... that truth may be found in the phrase ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder,’ he admitted. “May I now allow myself to believe in such words, Miss Price? Have I any chance at all? I beg of you to advise me, for this is one case in which I cannot judge for myself alone. You must indeed be my guide.”

“All I can say in truth, Mr. Crawford, is that now you are here, knowing that you are to be my escort back to the place where I most wish to be, I am well,” she declared. “Oh yes, I am very well indeed.”


End file.
